Why TV vicars could be the answer to Church prayers
LEARNING the cha-cha-cha and appearing on reality television is somewhat unusual behaviour for a Church of England priest.
But senior Church figures say that celebrity vicars like the Rev Richard Coles and the Rev Kate Bottley have made it more accessible – and contributed to a ten-year high in the numbers of trainee clergy. This year there were 544 new trainees, up from 476 last year – the largest figure in a decade.
New priests are also getting younger, with 28 per cent aged under 32, up from 23 per cent last year.
The Church of England has had a PR boost in recent months with “celebrity vicars” Coles and Bottley appearing on television and in the media.
Coles, a former member of pop band The Communards, is one of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing contestants while Bottley, who rose to fame on the Channel 4 series Gogglebox, has been announced as a new Radio 2 host.
The Bishop of Repton, the Rt Rev Jan Mcfarlane, who was one of the first women to be ordained by the Church in 1994, said she believed the pair had made the church appear more accessible. “With Richard and Kate, being on Strictly Come Dancing and shows like that, they’ve just come across as human people who happen to have a strong faith,” she said.
The number of women in ordained ministry is also at a record high.
Of the 544 ordinands – or trainee priests – starting their courses this year, 274 are women, a 19 per cent rise on last year. The Church now has 5,690 women priests.
Jemima Lewis, 33, a journalist, mother-of-three and an ordinand, said she has been encouraged by moves to make the priesthood more inclusive to women, such as part-time curacies and courses that fit around childcare.
She said: “There’s a higher profile of women as vicars and it seems a bit more normal that that could happen.”